Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell has published a large volume of writing. His dozen books, as well as numerous articles and essays, cover a wide range of topics, from classic economic theory to judicial activism, from civil rights to choosing the right college. Please contact your local newspaper editor if you want to read the THOMAS SOWELL column in your hometown paper.

Open Season on the Police

Maybe the parents who are so bitter over the loss of a son in a wholly unnecessary confrontation with a policeman doing his job might ask themselves if they did their job, when they raised a child without teaching him either common sense or common decency.

The Child Welfare Act Versus Children

The Child Welfare Act Versus Children

In a world where the media are ready to magnify innocuous remarks or a minor problem into a trauma or a disaster, there is remarkably little attention being paid to cruelties routinely inflicted on children by our laws and our courts. That cruelty is ripping children...

Investing in Public Education: Does It Add Up?

Investing in Public Education: Does It Add Up?

For many years now, American students have been coming in at or near the bottom in international tests of mathematics. Meanwhile, our schools have been entertaining themselves with "new math," "fuzzy math" and everything other than old-fashioned hard-work math that...

Education of Blacks in America: Do Facts Matter? Part II

Education of Blacks in America: Do Facts Matter? Part II

The history of the education of blacks in America has become politicized to the point where it is barely recognizable as history, rather than as an arsenal of horror stories to be used in the political wars of today. Many of these horror stories are true, even if...

Education of Blacks in America: Do Facts Matter?

Education of Blacks in America: Do Facts Matter?

Recently a young black man sent a thoughtful e-mail to me. Among his kind comments was an expression of sympathy for the racism that he thought blacks of my generation must have experienced in going through college. In reality, it is his generation of blacks who have...

Social Security “Trust Fund”

Social Security “Trust Fund”

According to the unanimous preliminary report of the special commission appointed to look into Social Security, the amount of money coming into the system will be insufficient to pay out what was promised by 2016. By 2030, the choice will be to reduce Social Security...

The War Against Boys

The War Against Boys

The motto used to be: "Boys will be boys." Today, the motto seems to be: "Boys will be medicated." Of nearly 20 million prescriptions written last year for drugs to treat "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder," most were for children and most of those children...

Loose Lips in American Academia and the Press

Loose Lips in American Academia and the Press

Some of the intelligentsia are yelling louder than ever that they are being silenced. Professors, journalists and others who have made grossly offensive remarks in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attack are shocked that other Americans are criticizing them...

King of Sluggers: Barry or The Babe?

King of Sluggers: Barry or The Babe?

This season, Barry Bonds has been a Giant in more than name. While baseball fans and the media have been focussed on his record-breaking home-run feats, far less attention has been paid to his other feats that have been even more spectacular -- and, in fact, unique....

The Autism Dilemma

The Autism Dilemma

Back on September 28, 1993, a group of parents of late-talking children was formed for mutual support, with my help, and grew until there were 55 families, scattered from coast to coast. Some of their children were diagnosed as autistic, though most of these diagnoses...

Islam and the West

Islam and the West

Terrorist organizations in the Middle East are trying to bill the current crisis as a confrontation between Islam and the West -- as in the Jihads and Crusades of centuries past. But there is no need for the rest of us to go along with that. Six years ago, Professor...

Barry Bond’s Great Baseball Season

Barry Bond’s Great Baseball Season

There was a certain painful irony when Barry Bonds passed Mickey Mantle in lifetime home runs. Mantle hit 536 home runs in his great career, but he was washed up when he was at the same age at which Bonds is now having his greatest season. Mickey himself blamed...

The “Trickle Down” Economics Straw Man

The “Trickle Down” Economics Straw Man

Among the suggestions being made for getting the American economy moving up again is a reduction in the capital gains tax. But any such suggestion makes people on the left go ballistic. It is "trickle down" economics, they cry. Liberals claim that those who favor tax...

Pacifism on Principle is Suicide

Pacifism on Principle is Suicide

Although most Americans seem to understand the gravity of the situation that terrorism has put us in -- and the need for some serious military response, even if that means dangers to the lives of us all -- there are still those who insist on posturing, while on the...

We Dare Not Tempt Them With Weakness

We Dare Not Tempt Them With Weakness

While the casualties in the terrorist attacks are expected to run into the tens of thousands, in a larger sense the casualties run into the millions because we are all affected now and will be as long as we live. People from all over the country have kept the phone...

A New Pearl Harbor

A New Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is the only thing in this century that can compare to the terrorist catastrophe that has struck the United States. With all its shock and tragedy, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ended our naive innocence about the dangerous world we live in and...

What is Economics?

What is Economics?

To know what economics is, we must first know what an economy is. Perhaps most of us think of an economy as a system for the production and distribution of the goods and services we use in everyday life. That is true as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough....

Property Rites or Rights?

Property Rites or Rights?

With police on hand to try to maintain order, the Loudoun County (Virginia) board of supervisors recently imposed severe restrictions on the building of homes, despite angry protesters. The board's plan allows only one house to be built for every 10 acres in some...

The United Nations of Reparations Hypocrisy

The United Nations of Reparations Hypocrisy

Perhaps Secretary of State Colin Powell's decision to pull the American delegation out of the so-called U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, will be just a footnote in history. But we can at least hope that it may be a turning point toward a...

Dealing with the Media: Getting This Behind You

Dealing with the Media: Getting This Behind You

The predictable media reaction to Gary Condit's bobbing and weaving has been to say that he should be candid, come clean and "get all this behind you." It is the kind of advice that they have offered repeatedly over the years to people in trouble, whether Nixon in the...

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